Elk and bears and wolves - Oh my!

My Uncle Rick called with a great idea a few days ago: he wanted to see if we'd like to go to Northwest Trek Wildlife Park. I had just been talking to some friends about wanting to go there, and it seemed like a great outing to take with my parents while they're here. So we loaded up the family truckster and set out for the park. Boy did Claire, Nathan and Maddie have a great time! Claire and her cousin Nathan ran around the whole park, racing ahead on the path and then running back to us. They got quite the workout. We had a great time seeing lots of neat animals that are native to the Pacific Northwest, in their natural environments. We'll definitely think about going back there again before we move.


Maddie rocks out

Last night Maddie was getting ready for bed when Phil started playing some fun tunes on the computer. Not about to miss the fun, Maddie came out of her room to dance. We especially liked the crawl/head shake dance. Don't know if you can hear it or not, but at the end she points to the screen and says, "Do", which I'm pretty sure is her version of "you".

Anybody want to buy a house?

It's official. Our house is on the market. I am slaving away, trying to keep this place clean. OK, we actually paid some nice ladies to come clean it yesterday, but I do have to maintain it! Hopefully someone will come by and see it soon before all of the clean wears off.

Bailey has been unimpressed by this whole process. Our agent actually asked us if he was "always like that", pointing at him as he lay on the floor like a log. He's actually been a little more playful than usual, thanks to Claire taking an interest in his toys and (more importantly) giving him treats. I suppose he is a seasoned mover by now. He's had 6 homes since I adopted him, but this is the longest he's lived anywhere. He'll probably miss his backyard.

Poor Claire was sick this afternoon. She spent the day on the couch, snuggled in an afghan, watching her shows, and defending her special blankie from Maddie. Hope she feels better tomorrow.

First steps!

Maddie took her first steps today. She did about 6 Frankenstein-esque steps in a row before plopping down on her mama. She's getting to be such a big girl! I suppose she'll soon be running around with her big sister. It's really hard to believe.

Phil and I spent our 6th anniversary here at home, enjoying our last weekend of being able to be slobs (the house goes on the market this Wednesday). Claire helped out with a few last-minute projects around the house. She really enjoyed using her tools like Daddy!

*sigh*

This is just a tiny sample of how my day goes:

Mommy to Claire: "Claire, are you being contrary?"
Claire to Mommy (with arms folded, in her best two year-old sassy tone): "Nooooooo!!!"

Is it too early to talk to her about irony?

Hands full

I had my hands full this morning with four kiddos under my care. This may be an everyday occurrence for my brother and Heidi, but it's definitely not the norm here. They were all reasonably well-behaved, with only a few minor squabbles over toys and some whining by the little ones to indicate hunger.

Sick

Ugh. I'm sick. Why is it that I only manage to get sick when Phil is out of town? I don't even have a phone number for him right now, so I can't even call him to holler at him for being gone. Fortunately the kids were pretty well-behaved today. It's amazing what a constant stream of TV shows will do for the mood of a two year-old. Thank you Tivo!

Even though I was feeling under the weather, the girls cheered me up quite a bit. They were both being really funny today. Maddie spent most of the day playing in the Cozy Coupe. She likes to crawl in there, get herself all turned around and half hanging out, then start to fuss that she needs help. And Claire tried her best to take care of me. She would kiss me on the forehead and remind me to take my medicine. She cuddled on the couch with me for most of the day.

Garbage day

Thursday mornings are full of excitement here. It's trash day. Every other week it's also recycle day. And once a month it's trash day, recycle day, AND glass day. This may seem like just another day to most people, but to our toddler Thursday is definitely the coolest day of the week. Claire can hear the truck coming and any activity (breakfast, playing, harassing the dog) is interrupted while she runs to the front window at top speed. From there she is able to watch the garbage truck hoist the can up and dump it, then lower it back down to our curb again. Yesterday the performance was repeated an hour or so later by the recycle truck. With entertainment like this, who needs Disney World?

Finally asleep

Claire has been trying really hard to give up her afternoon nap. She took a little nap yesterday, but hadn't napped during the whole week before that. We've been having her go in her room to "take a little rest" everyday, and she generally reads books or plays with her toys quietly for an hour and a half to two hours. That works out OK for me, but the lack of sleep has been making her a bit ummm... overtired. ("Overtired" when used to describe a two-year-old means "crazy") Anyway, Phil checked on her this afternoon and found the poor girl like this:

It looks like she had been reading her books and just fell right asleep in her reading chair. I'll bet money that my mom is right now saying to my dad, "They didn't leave here there, did they?" heeheehee. Nope we didn't leave her there. After chuckling a bit and taking some photos we broke the 'don't move a sleeping kid' rule and moved her into her bed. She barely noticed. Guess the lack of sleep finally caught up to her.

And since I'm posting on the good ol' web today, I want to take this opportunity to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad! :)

Clean, clean, clean

We have a real estate agent coming to look at our house on Monday to help us with pricing, etc, so it will be ready to go on the market at the end of the month. We've been really busy getting it ready to be seen. Even Claire was busy stacking her books into little piles yesterday. She told us she was "organizing".

It's crazy to think that our house is going to have to be clean and organized enough that I won't be terribly embarrassed for someone to drop in with little notice and poke around here. The house has to look nice enough for them to a)open all of my closets, and b)actually want to live here. We have the front yard looking good; we're still tackling the inside.

It makes me a little sad to think that we're going to move soon. We brought both of our girls home from the hospital here, we've made good friends, and this has been our home for almost 4 years. We'll miss it.

Before marketing

After marketing (can you see a difference?)

Maddie & Chair

Maddie gets a kick out Claire's red suede rocker. Lots of possibilities for playing, rocking, climbing and the such. Check this album for the movies.

Child Labor Begins!

We're looking forward to the beginning of utilizing our built in labor-force here in the family. Claire has a new chore she really enjoys: feeding the dog. She goes into the pantry, opens the dog food container and digs out 3 scoops of puppy bites and takes them to Bailey's dish. Then she carefully replaces all the tools, closes the container, puts it back in place in the pantry, turns out the lights and closes the door! The key here, is that she thinks it's fun!

What a worker!